TippCo survived WWII to produce toys into jet age

Of all the toy companies that made Germany the longtime leader in tin toy production, TippCo alone produced a wide assortment of aircraft from the 1930s to the 1960s. Also known variously as Tipp & Co., Tipp, Tippco and TCO, TippCo is highly regarded by vintage toy collectors for their products’ quality, innovation and overall appeal.

TippCo was founded in 1912 in Nuremberg, Germany. Philipp Ullmann ran the company until 1933, when he was forced to flee the growing strength of Nazi party.

Under Ullmann’s leadership the early 1930s TippCo aircraft toys were broadly based on early simple designs of the then popular Fokker, Dornier, Heinkel and Junkers aircraft. Several different types of these early monoplanes and other generic biplanes were produced with both military and civilian markings and had unusually large and long vertical stabilizers or rudders to help simulate flight using the key-wound propeller.

In England, Ullmann established Mettoy and began to produce tin toys similar to those he developed for TippCo. Mettoy tin aircraft toys do not have the collector appeal of the TippCo products, either because they failed to produce accurate to scale toys, either prewar or afterwards, or because their products were unable to compete with the accurate and timely diecast toys released by Meccano's Dinky Toys. A few Mettoy aircraft were produced in the 1950s in tin and later in plastic, but they failed in the marketplace. This business eventually became known as Mettoy Playcraft, and later developed into a toy industry leader when they launched the highly successful die-cast Corgi Toys.

Original, working examples of German-made TippCo toys are extremely hard to find today as most simply did not survive the devastation of the war. Additionally, many of the military versions were destroyed after the war in reaction to anything reminiscent of Nazi rule and its devastating defeat. Finally, laws forbidding the sale of any item in Germany that featured the swastika were passed.

Some years after Ullmann’s departure from Germany in 1933 TippCo aircraft toys underwent a substantial change in design philosophy, for the most part abandoning the generic designs with elongated rudders for more accurate renditions of aircraft then used by the civilian and military.

Also seen by the mid-1930s were accurate TippCo toys of the Zeppelin airship Hindenburg D-LZ 129, the most famous of the German airships that operated regular transatlantic flights between Germany and both North and South America. The TippCo Hindenburg was issued in several sizes over several years, the largest being almost 17 inches long. Some variations of the toy had options such as electric lights and were equipped with a large, key-wound rear propeller that could drive the dirigible when suspended from the ceiling.

By 1937 the TippCo catalogs started to feature several new designs, while still offering the older and basic generic toys, some renewed with colorfully fictitious markings. Some of their new aircraft toys included innovations that separated TippCo from its competitors, such as well-detailed lithography, battery-powered navigation lights, sparking machine guns, and complex spring-wound clockwork mechanisms, which would drive the propellers, run the wheels and drop cap bombs. While the true-to-scale aspect usually suffered so these options could be included, TippCo began to use a clear plastic celluloid extension fitted to a normally sized tin tail to provide flight stability and more accurate appearance.

TippCo introduced a Doppeldecker, or biplane, toy vaguely similar to the Bücker Bü 131B Jungmann, a widely used Luftwaffe trainer. Another larger toy biplane fighter representing a Heinkel He 51, a biplane fighter powered by a massive BMW V-12 engine, was also produced. The He-51 was issued in a variety of makings, civilian, fictitious and military. Both of these toys were also issued as monoplanes by simply eliminating the lower wing.

Other new designs available by 1937 included a twin-engine de Havilland Aircraft Comet racer, an aircraft which was developed in 1934 as an all-wood, high-speed light transport setting new world records well into the late 1930s. TippCo also made a twin-engine Heinkel He-111 along with a Douglas DC-2 in KLM Dutch markings, both of these bore little resemblance to the actual aircraft. No examples of these three toys have been seen in the market in many years, underlining their extremely rare classification.

One of the finest TippCo toys introduced during the prewar period was the large and highly accurate JU-52 trimotor transport toy with corrugated wings and fuselage in civilian airline markings. This aircraft was destined later on to become the Luftwaffe’s primary transport troop carrier for the war. This toy had several variants over many years, some with battery-powered lights.

Later TippCo introduced a smaller Ju-52 with full military camouflage makings and a civilian Lufthansa version. Generally the swastika was not used on toys destined for export markets. After 1941 TippCo added a new single-engine fighter and a new twin-engine aircraft. Recently, examples of each of these last two toys recently appeared at auction and were described as being a Messerschmitt Bf-109 and a Messerschmitt Me-110, which they were not.

The single-engine fighter is actually a toy more closely resembling the Heinkel He-100, a sleek fighter design that was developed to outperform the Messerschmitt Bf-109. On March 30, 1939, the He-100 did just that by setting a new world speed record, far surpassing the Messerschmitt. Though the Heinkel He-100 proved to be the fastest fighter aircraft in the world at the time of its development, the Luftwaffe decided Heinkel should limit its designs to bombers and allow Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf to pursue single-seat fighter development. Among aviation experts, the failure to take up the superior He-100 design is often debated as a major error in Germany’s strategic planning in the air war. Only 19 He-100 aircraft were produced.

The twin-engine toy was probably based on a minor and unimportant aircraft, such as the early prototype of the Siebel Si 204 trainer and utility transport.

Some toy aviation specialists believe that this TippCo toy could be based on the Gotha Go241.

“The TippCo prewar planes, except the JU-52 and the Comet, perhaps, have a very toyish character and can never be placed on the same accuracy level as a DUX or Lehmann toys, since the functions of the Tippco toy planes (flying from a string, bomb-dropping, etc.) always compromised form for function very much, in my opinion,” said Christian Lell, a German collector of technical aircraft toys and models, adding, “Even though the later Tippco prewar planes, which were developed and produced under the Nazis, improved upon the accuracy of the planes comparable to their tanks and cars, they never reached the same level."

It is unusual that TippCo selected these aircraft from the many new and highly advanced designs being produced by Germany’s aircraft manufacturers at that time. These choices over the well-known Bf-109, the Me-110 twin-engine fighter-bomber, and even the Focke-Wulf FW 190, are both unusual and disappointing.

TippCo toy production ceased due to intense Allied bombing in 1943. Following the war’s end TippCo reinstated tin toy production and its first new aircraft toy designs were chosen from established and popular civilian transports and flown by the major international airlines such as TWA, Pan American World Airways, Air France, BOAC, KLM, Lufthansa and Iberia Airlines. These toy aircraft were exceptionally strong, well designed, and became the new standard for quality in postwar tin toy production. The lithography was faithful to its subject and the toys were made from thicker-gauge tin plate than was generally used during the period.

The first in the series was the twin engine Convair 340 prop liner that first entered service in 1947. It was a pressurized airliner designed to fly above turbulent weather, faster than the classic Douglas DC-3 still widely used in service after the war. There were many variants of this toy both in accurate airline markings and the fictitious TippCo World Airlines. Some TippCo Convairs had battery-powered wing lights, complex retractable landing gear and remote controls.

Advanced tin toy collector Anthony Duva, reflecting on his aircraft toy collection said, “The TippCo brand was one of the first leaders in the toy airplane field because its variety in the 1930s was incredible. Back then the planes were not realistic, but they certainly came in many colors and were impressive in size. My favorite TippCo toy is the Convair 340 Nr. 58F. As a young boy I used to love to watch the Allegheny Airlines and Mohawk Convairs at the airport on Sundays. Only TippCo bothered to make one out of tinplate. I was delighted to find a mint example a few years ago,” said Duva, who has more than 400 tin and pressed steel toy planes in his collection.

TippCo also produced a very accurate rendition of the four-engine Lockheed Super Constellation, among the last of a long series of Constellation aircraft started at the end of World War II. Many variations of the TippCo Super Constellation were produced with various airline markings, some having friction drives, others with electric wingtip lights, and some with electric motors driving the wheels and the propellers.

Recognizing the end of the propeller-driver airliners with the advent of the all-jet airliners, TippCo was the first toy firm to offer a tin toy of the de Havilland Comet, which began airliner service in 1952, the first of the all-jet airliners. A new Boeing design, the Dash 80, first flown in 1954, was the prototype for Boeing’s 707 series, and TippCo added an accurate rendition of the Boeing 707-121. Finally, TippCo produced its last two airliner toys, the Caravelle, used by Air France and SAS in 1959, and the highly successful Boeing 727. These toys had friction drive or remote-control, battery-operated wheels.

After the introductions of these airliners, TippCo ceased its efforts to produce high-quality, scale-like renditions of successful aircraft in service. The last series of aviation toys produced, such as the No. 57F Phantom Jet, reflected another design policy shift in the direction of fantasy designs and colorful graphics seemingly unrelated to contemporary aircraft.

TippCo ceased operations in 1971.